Damage Control for your DNA?
Yes! Welcome to Exogen and MyDNABreaks(r) a DNA damage test. I’m in love here, just falling in love….first Theranos and its nanosecond microtesting and now my broken DNA has a kit for testing also using microsamples. Here’s the information I received today:
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But as usual, nothing is perfect. Does our government have to fund everything here? Ok, I know, I read the history – and it isn’t just apricot orchards, it is WW’s and microwaves. Let’s go….and see what the latest is
SILICON VALLEY BECOMES GOVERNMENT ALLEY in yet another start up embedded in the military industrial complex. (dear Friends Select, my Quaker alma mater – I had no idea the world would be like this. Surprises everywhere.)
More disruptive technology in the field of medicine! I like this! This time it comes from Exogen Biotechnology and it is looking at our DNA. Very exciting stuff going on with two new medical start ups in a row here on The Silicon Valley Story.
What took so long for the changes to appear in the field of medicine? Never mind. I know: disincentives for innovation and a medical industry so stuck on itself and the past and a curriculum designed by pharmaceutical companies that it co-opted the intellect of med school students and gave them medical Stockholm Syndrome.
Ok, here’s Exogen in their own words:
Exogen Biotechnology is a health startup aimed at developing next-generation technologies for individuals to monitor damage to their DNA and to assess their DNA repair capacities for the purposes of personalized and preventive health care. Damage to your DNA can result from normal metabolic processes as well as exposure to exogeneous agents, such as ultraviolet light, ionizing radiation, and some environmental and industrial chemicals. Your ability to repair your DNA upon damage is vital to the integrity of your genome and normal functioning. DNA damage and poor DNA repair has been linked to many diseased states including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, immunological diseases, and premature aging.
Exogen’s technological platform for assessing DNA damage and repair capacities was developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by a team of scientists and engineers. Exogen was founded in 2012 to translate this new technology to enable rapid processing of human blood specimens and to make testing services affordable and accessible to the public.”
So, we have Lawrence Berkeley Lab developing this tech and at Theranos we have a military based Board of Directors (George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, for example) and recently I wrote about Palantir and we all know that isn’t backed by a cookie jar.. (as bizjournal.com says of Theranos: “Theranos recently added heavy hitters to its board, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Defense Secretary William Perry, recently retired commander of U.S. Central Command James Mattis and former Sen.Sam Nunn.”
Moving on from the implications of all that (it’s a DIY blog in some ways when it comes to whys and wherefores. I remain silent on those for the time being.)
Interesting stuff from Exogen – more – “Your DNA contains all of the genetic instructions that make you who you are. Maintaining the integrity of your DNA over the course of your lifetime is critical for protection against many aging-related diseases. Scientists have known for years that DNA damage is associated with cancer, Alzheimer’s, premature aging, and many other serious medical conditions.
At Exogen, our goal is to provide tools to monitor the integrity of your DNA, which could help prevent these diseases. ”
Today’s Invite to Participate
On Thursday of this week, exogen wants to take a sample of your blood and analyze it for broken DNA. They say:
Purpose of the Pilot Study:
You might be surprised to learn that your DNA is constantly being damaged and broken. Many of the sources of DNA damage are ones that you can actually control. These include exposure to UV rays, medical x-rays, and industrial chemicals, or lifestyle choices like diet and physical activity.
Exogen is developing a DNA damage kit (MyDNABreaks®) that will allow you to monitor your level of DNA damage over time using only a few drops of blood. If you have a high level of DNA damage then you can take proactive measures to reduce your DNA damage. The purpose of this pilot study is to test the feasibility of our blood collection system and processing pipeline.
OK! I’m in. I will go. I want to see my broken DNA. I’ve never quite heard it called this – I am used to shortened telomeres and telomerase activators, so I am curious what I will find. I already have some biomarkers from 23andme.com as to what my telomeres are like (some longer than average, some average and some shorter. Nothing extraordinary.)
see more on Exogen
And now is a GREAT TIME to show you my FLIPBOARD magazine DNA is ME (I love Flipboard- – thank you , thank you for being there!) (Must download the app, your browser will show you only a little bit of the magazine)
DNAisME
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